The Brandeis University Virtual Incubator program will award up to $50,000 to approximately four recipients-depending on the individual finances of each project-to fund science and technology research as part of the Sprout Grants entrepreneurial seed-fund program, according to Associate Provost for Innovation and Executive Director for the Office of Technology Licensing Irene Abrams.The grants are intended to "support faculty and students who want to take their research or discoveries to the next level for possible collaboration with industry," Provost Marty Krauss wrote in an e-mail to the Justice, and are available to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, postdoctoral fellows and staff. Funds will be provided by the Office of the Provost, wrote Krauss, and the BUVI will award grants in increments of $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000, depending on the amount needed for the project. The funds can be used toward materials, supplies and undergraduate and graduate students' and postdoctoral fellows' salaries, but not toward the salaries of faculty or staff.

The preliminary application is due April 13 and will be available on the Office of Technology Licensing's website later this week, said Abrams in a phone interview with the Justice. The BUVI will review proposals and select those that seem "the most promising," said Abrams, and invite such applicants to submit a complete application by April 29. Applicants will make a brief presentation to an external panel of judges: The panel will most likely consist of two judges who work in the biotechnology business and two who work in the field of information technology, said Abrams. The tentative date for the presentations is May 5, and a final decision will be made the following week, according to Abrams.

The grants will primarily be awarded for use during the upcoming academic year in order "to make [the grants] available to the most folks at Brandeis," said Abrams, though the BUVI "would certainly be willing to entertain" applications for summer research, she continued.

Each grant recipient will be matched for the duration of the grant with an industry mentor who works in a field related to their project and will "provide industry perspective, ... help them ... figure out what work they would need to do to make the technology more attractive to industry" and assist in networking, Abrams said. Next fall the BUVI will also host networking opportunities and a speaker series about "different issues relating to developing technology" including intellectual property and writing business plans, she continued.

This is the first year of the Sprout Grants program, and Abrams said that she hopes it will become an annual award. "We hope to run [the program] every year, and if there's demand, we hope to grow it," she said. Information sessions for the Sprout Grants program will be held on April 1 at 11 a.m., April 4 at 3 p.m., April 8 at 10 a.m. and April 12 at 11 a.m. in the Office of Technology Licensing on the fourth floor of the Ros-Kos Connector.